As a powerful state legislator who exercised influence over the state budget, he would push to fund a teacher training center at ODU. Meanwhile, he would ask to be the center's director, using legitimate expertise he had developed over the years as a Newport News school employee and an education-oriented lawmaker.

U.S attorneys Robert J. Seidel Jr. and Robert Harbach have introduced emails into evidence, many between Hamilton and ODU officials that show he was seeking funding for the training center at the same time that he was inquiring about becoming its director.

"Phil Hamilton had a problem," Harbach said in his opening statement last week. "But he also saw an opportunity."

The first key meeting occurred on Aug. 16, 2006, the day Hamilton told his wife he was headed to ODU about a job.

He met with ODU's then-president, Roseann Runte, dean of education William Graves and David Blackburn, another university employee. Hamilton expressed his support for the center, and after he left the meeting, Runte turned to the two men.

According to Graves, she said: "That man wants a job. Make him director or something."

Runte has strongly denied ever saying that – at that meeting or at any other time.

"There was no promise," she said in a videotaped deposition. "I never promised anything."

Hamilton later emailed his wife that the meeting went well and that he "reinforced the idea" that he needed to bring in $6,000 per month if and when the job came up.

"I was told ODU president was interested — but she never mentioned it," the email read.

Norfolk attorney Andrew Sacks, representing Hamilton, has admitted that his client showed poor judgment, and that some might find his actions offensive, an ethical breach or a conflict of interest.

But that's not the issue in U.S. District Court, where Judge Henry Hudson is presiding over the jury trial. Nowhere does Hamilton specifically say that he must have the job in exchange for sponsoring the funding – nor has anyone testified to such a conversation.

But Harbach said that coercion or conditionality is not the standard. The government needs to prove a relationship of "I will do this. You will do that," he said.

Last week, Hudson agreed that the government had provided enough of a case to continue.

Sometimes, Hudson said, there can be a tacit understanding between the parties, not necessarily a signed agreement. But that's up to the jury.

Harbach said Hamilton tried to hide his involvement in the center when he sensed the heat was on, displaying a guilty conscience.

In the summer of 2008, after the center had been up and running for about a year, the Senate Finance Committee came to ODU on a routine fact-finding trip. A visit to the new teacher training center was on the agenda.

Hamilton emailed ODU's Blackburn that the committee appeared to be "digging" and instructed Blackburn to identify himself as the director. He did.

One year later, Freedom of Information Act requests from the Daily Press and Virginian Pilot were submitted to ODU about Hamilton's job. In a conference call with ODU officials, Hamilton argued that some emails didn't have to be released.

The ODU officials disagreed. They made the emails public and cut ties with Hamilton.

Hamilton also tried to argue that his budget amendment seeking funding for the center had nothing to do with ODU because it didn't mention a specific university.

"That was a lie, plain and simple," Harbach said, because the emails show he was working behind the scenes with ODU.

The prosecution spent three days laying out the case against Hamilton, and not all of the emails came in order. But Harbach told the jury that the pieces of the puzzle would fit in the end.

From the moment Hamilton told ODU he would support the center, Harbach said, "he knew what he was doing."

The one-time powerful lawmaker from Newport News was convicted on federal charges of bribery and extortion for his attempts to secure a job with Old Dominion University while simultaneously working to secure state funding for the position.

E-mails obtained by the Daily Press show that Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, began pursuing a job at Old Dominion University in August 2006, months before he filed legislation to create a teaching center that eventually went to ODU, which hired him for $40,000 a year.

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